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JavaScript JavaScript and the DOM (Retiring) Traversing the DOM Getting the First and Last Child

Zijun Liao
Zijun Liao
13,409 Points
Posted by Zijun Liao
Zijun Liao
13,409 Points

Hide Up/Button problem

I tried to add a function to refresh the whole list each time when people manipulate it. However, I got the error when I hide the down button on the last item. I really don't know why as I do exactly the same in the previous code,

function refreshList(ul){
  for(let i=1;i<ul.children.length-1;i++){
    ul.children[i].children[0] = 'block';
    ul.children[i].children[1] = 'block';
  }

  ul.firstElementChild.children[0].style.display = 'none';    //Hide the second button of first element.
  ul.lastElementChild.children[1].style.display = "none";    //Error: Cannot read property 'style' of undefined
}

Sorry for the unformatted code on this page.

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,008 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,008 Points

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2 Answers

brian walsh
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
brian walsh
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 10,997 Points
brian walsh
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
brian walsh
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 10,997 Points

Ok, from what I can see the error is referring to the index value, meaning it is not there. This might be because you are subtracting 1 from the length property, but I need to see all the code to know what is really happening. Whenever, you get an error message with 'undefined' it means something is not there or you are accessing it incorrectly.

Iain Simmons
MOD
Iain Simmons
Treehouse Moderator 32,305 Points
Iain Simmons
Iain Simmons
Treehouse Moderator 32,305 Points

You're not doing the same because you're trying to access the second element (index 1) of the last element child of the unordered list, not the first. And brian walsh is right, it's likely that there isn't an element that matches that index (i.e. there's only one child element of the last list item).

Also note in your loop you're not actually setting the display CSS property in the style property of the buttons, you're trying to override the elements at those indexes (first and second children of the list items) with the literal string 'block'.